The Lord of the Land
by pugdude
Summary: Set a little over 100 yrs after RotK. A former servant of the dark lord is preparing to launch his own assault uppon Middle Earth. Third Chapter is up! (Finally) Please R&R! Thanks!
1. Of Setting Suns and Midnight Meals

_Disclaimer: I own nothing of The Lord of the Rings except Carnëanor, Luinrân, Milo, Violet, and Hilei (thanks Becca for that one.)  And many other elves later in the fic._

_Note: I strongly urge you to at least read the timelines in the Appendixes concerning the events after the fall of Barad-Dûr._

**__**

**_The Lord of the Land_**

_A Lotr Fanfic._

                The ship both Legolas and Gimli created sailed off into the distance and with it the last members of the fellowship of the ring parted from Middle Earth. Hidden amongst the grass, unbeknownst to Gimli or Legolas, was an elv of the harshest nature. His long coal black hair swayed in the ocean breeze; hair which held the starkest contrast to his pallid complexion, a symptom inherent of a life long lived in shadow. Midnight black pupils focused with anticipation on the vessel, which grew steadily smaller as it sailed over the horizon. A smile swept across Cánodôr's face as he watched their departure, "At last the only remaining foes of my master have left the land he sought to conquer; the land which I will soon hold dominion over." And having said that he turned round and headed northeast, following the path laid down by the river Anduin, towards Mordor…

          "Goodbye Legolas Greenleaf, may the sea bid you safe passage to the lands of the west." said Hilei as she mounted her elegant mare Lintálwi. Her startling black eyes peered, seeming to lack pupils, over the watery plain where the river Aduin spilled out into the ocean. The waves lapped about Lintálwi's hooves as she trotted in the setting sunlight. Hilei gazed into the horizon as the ship passed from view, a tear descending her cheek and falling as yet another drop in the sea. She dried her face and continued up the coast until she reached the bridge leading into Telfalas where she was to meet Carnëanor and Luinrân.

          As they crossed, the rhythm of the mare's hooves upon the bridge of stone brought memories of her beloved prince surging back into her mind.

          _"Why must you go to Rivendell? Why must you leave while the shadow grows over your father's realm and the times turn ill?" Hilei tearfully exclaimed. _

_          "I go because I've been summoned by Elrond of Rivendell, to represent our people at a great council…" Legolas replied. "…they say it has been found."_

_          "The ring of power? Why, it has been lost for ages! Oh the times are darker still if men have found the ring. It is only a matter of time before the shadow consumes all that oppose him! Until he claims absolute lordship over Middle Earth!" she said with despair. _

_          "This is why I must leave Hilei." He solemnly answered. He held her hands in his as she began to weep. "It may be a long time ere we see one another again but, do not despair for one day  the sun will rise again upon both our faces…" her eyes opened to meet his gaze. "…even if I must hoist it up over the distant horizon." _

_          She smiled against her tears and for a moment Legolas had assuaged her fears. Then Legolas stepped back, turned and began to walk away, but stopped short of the chamber door. "Legolas, I love you beyond your comprehension and I know that I will never receive your feelings in return save our friendship together…" she paused, turned, and then gently removed the silk cloth from the package lying on her bed. " Will you accept this gift for your journey abroad?" she said as she handed him a pair of gauntlets. "My father wore these during the great wars of the past, may they bid you safe passage across the lands he sought to defend as you seek your own part in the tale that lies ahead."_

_          He bowed in thanks. "Namárië, until our next meeting." He said as he walked through the doorway._

_          "Namárië." Said Hilei with a sigh as he passed from view._

She awoke from her memories to see a figure in the distance, not across the bridge but up the river's shore a ways inland. Her elven senses told her that the figure was that of an elv but her heart questioned if he still was. The elv turned round and though she knew nothing of him, save his gender for his garments were black and had a masculine quality about them, she felt the resurgence of a fear she had not felt since the days of dark lord. She gasped and even Lintálwi froze for a moment, for the figure had vanished with the passing of the wind.

          Hastening her horse's pace over the bridge, Hilei soon arrived on the isle of Telfalas where Carnëanor and Luinrân stood with the last rays of the day upon their broad shoulders, rather curiously as it was for they both had seen her pause over the bridge in her moment of fear. "Few things bring such terror over the face of Hilei." said Carnëanor, first of the twin brothers and often quickest to act in any situation. 

          "So do be kind and enlighten us on just what it was you saw." finished Luinrân the second and more reserved of the two. 

          "Something I thought no longer existed. Someone with the power to evoke the spirit of the dark lord as if he himself were Sauron." replied Hilei. Their masculine eyes of sapphire were both terrified and worried for the treat of Sauron had been alleviated for some time, over one hundred years actually.

 "Are you sure of this?" questioned Luinrân.

          "As sure as I am that I will never see the prince of Mirkwood ever again." She replied with solemnity. They both were silenced by this, knowing how she felt for Legolas.

          Desiring a change in the flow of the conversation Carnëanor said this "Why then do we sit idle whilst the lingering darkness is abroad; why not spread light where the shadow hides." 

          "It would be of no use now; he disappeared in the passing breeze."

          "Well, we should ride on nevertheless for you need to be in a town known as Bree within the month. There you will meet Isilmë; she will have tidings of her mission in the west. Do you know where Bree is?" asked Luinrân as both he and his brother mounted their horses.

          "You doubt my knowledge of the geography of the Halflings realm?" Hilei replied as she took hold of reins.

          "I'll receive that as a yes."

          "We shall accompany you to the borders of Lorien, there we will split paths." said Carnëanor while steering his steed forward.    

          "Let us go then, we will inform you of the details on the way." said Luinrân. 

*                  *                  *

One month later in the village of Bree.

          "Could you pass me the broom Milo?" said Violet to a fellow with golden hair and eyes the color of maple syrup.

          "Which one?" he replied.

          "The one we use for the dinning room, with the cedar handle." She said as she hung her dripping coat up to dry.  

          "There you are." Milo said as he passed the sweeping apparatus to Violet. Her normally bouncy red curls were dampened by the torrential downpour she had to walk through on her way from the stables; her eyes of jade were beacons in the darkness. Every night she would check on the customers' horses (or ponies and on rare occasions one might find mules or even donkeys resting in the stable of the Prancing Pony) feed and on this rainy evening, to see if the roof had begun to leak. Noting her continuance with the evening's chores Milo had assumed that the ceiling lacked anything closely resembling a trickle.

          "You'll want to bring the mop n' bucket, someone had a run in with some of Grandle's more robust ales and I'm afraid the ale got the best of him." Milo reluctantly put the mop in one hand and the bucket in the other and followed Violet into the parlor. 

          The rather dismal lighting matched both their moods as they went from table to table ushering the remaining men from their drinking posts with their typical 'Sir, don't you think its rather late?' or 'Off to bed with you now, Oh, and by the way your in room 14, second level.' And Milo's personal favorite that he often reserved for the less sober fellows 'Had a bit of Ale have we?' which he had just used on a man whom answered:

          "'Ow old are you?" said the gentlemen in his drunken inquisitiveness. 

          "Not even in his tweens!" Violet giggled.

          "I'm thirty two and that's close enough!" Milo retorted. "Which is old enough to tell people its past midnight and they need to hit the sack."

          Violet, who at the time was thirty six, took the man's arm and guided him toward his room. "Could you clean up the mess?" she said between giggles. 

          "Where?" he said as he surveyed the area for the tossed biscuits.

          "In the corner by the window." Her voice coming from the hall. Milo acknowledged the corner and went to fill his bucket. He returned mop and bucket at the ready and proceeded with caution. Looking under the tables (which wasn't very hard, he wasn't much taller than they were) and scanning the floor for the muck that must be cleansed from Grandle's establishment. His nostrils sipped the air in quick little intervals and soon found what they had been searching for. One step, quick peek under the tables then looking just in front of him as he took his second step, yet another peek under the tables and as he took his third… nothing but wooden planks.

          "Well, where is it then?" he questioned the room as he looked around his hairy feet and took a step back with his right. Cold, wet slime assaulted his trademark hobbit sole and a cringe swept across Milo's face for he had found the tossed biscuits. " Ack! Oh, how nice…" now filled with sarcasm "… biscuits n' beans with a side of rice!" Indeed his word was true and as it was the pile was ripe with the aforementioned contents. 

          Milo now balanced on his 'clean' foot and began to hop towards his pail of soap and water. "Oh he's barely even of age" sang Violet retuning. Surprised, Milo lost his balance and was swaying to and fro like a drunken scallywag.(while on one foot to be sure.) "To be so full of soapy rage." And like a drunk he tripped, fell and landed with a thump and a splash of sudsy water, bottom first, into his bucket. "When you ask him of his years, his eyes flood with those soapy tears. But in the end he laughs it off because…" She stopped her performance just in time to see Milo, limbs hanging over the side like a flaccid flower arrangement, stuck in the mopping bucket. "… He's gone and gotten himself stuck in a pail of water!" She finished with a hand clasped over her mouth attempting to block a flood of hysterical laughter.

          "You know I never really had that problem, mopping the floor, it's really rather simple. I could give you lessons if you want." She said jokingly and still trembling with mirth. "How did you get in this situation anyhow?"

          "I had a bit of help." He said wiggling the toes of his right foot to call attention to the clinging goop. 

          "So you did manage to find it." She said between smiles.

          "Eventually."

          "Here, take my hand." Violet extended her hand and hoisted him out. The two stood at about the same height, Violet just an inch or so shorter than Milo. 

          "You should go change. I'll fix the two of us a light snack before we attempt to read our eyelids." Said Violet. Milo then dunked his foot into the water, swished it around a few times and extracted a foot of the cleanest nature. He then took the rag normally used for cleaning the tables and rubbed his foot dry, the hair on his foot a bit more fluffy than the other, and made his way towards his bedroom. Violet however made her way towards the kitchen. 

          The kitchen was extremely substandard in Violet's opinion. There were never enough pans to go round, (the Prancing Pony could get very busy at times)  the room itself was not even close to what she was used to back home in the Shire, and it was just far to masculine as a whole. In the beggining, just a few months ago, when she and Milo had traveled to Bree to work for old Grandle, she would sometimes bring in flowers in an attempt to feminize the kitchen a bit. Either from lack of water or Milo's habitual clumsiness the flowers would often be discarded, and after a few failed attempts she finally came to accept the kitchen for what it was: a chaotic, catastrophic attempt at a kitchen.  

          Her tender hands rummaged through the contents of the smallest pantry she had ever seen and she managed to pull from its pathetic store a few slices of salted pork, a chain of sausage, an assortment of potatoes and squash, and the remains of the mushroom hoard.( all seven of them)She then took her selected ingredients and went into the kitchen and began fixing a hobbit style supper for the two of them.

          Meanwhile, after Milo had finished from changing his soaked drawers and into a fresher pair of pants, he smelt upon the air the sweetest fragrance to waft in any hobbits nostrils… The smell of a freshly cooked meal and judging by the aroma Milo discerned the ingredients of the supper meal. _Salted pork-definitely._ Milo thought to himself._ Let's see, sausage links with potatoes… his mouth began to salivate. _Squash and…oh it can't be…_ he sniffed the air once again to make sure. "Mushrooms!" and before he had even finished the second syllable he was off. Down the hall, around the tables and chairs of the parlor, and finally into the kitchen where Violet stood before two plates full of the meal he had smelt from afar._

          Without a word spoken between the two of them they both sat their plates down on a nearby table and began to climb up onto their seats, one next to the other. Once they had both made it up and onto their chairs the only sound that came from that table was that of pleasant chewing.(although Milo was more ravenous than pleasant)

Until the echo of someone rapping upon the door of the inn interrupted the sweet harmony of hobbits at meal time. They both exchanged nervous glances, for it was very odd indeed for anyone to come in at such a late hour. The rapping sounded against the door again and the hobbits grew even more uneasy. 

          "Ew cou hat be?" Milo asked through a mouth full of food and half a sausage link hanging from his lips. Violet shrugged, got off her stool and went for the door. Milo was frozen with terror and his sausage fell down to his plate. Violet reached the door and began to unhitch the lock when the steady beat came again against the door.

She gave the door a quick tug and it flung open revealing a towering figure clad heavily in black.


	2. Hobbit Dance

I still own nothing of the Lotr trilogy. Additions to the list of owned character: Grandle and Nessaruvar. I do apologize for all the breaks in this chapter and for taking so long to post.

At last, there stood Cánodôr at the end of his peregrination before the rubble that was once the great tower of Barad-Dûr. Looking right the elv could see the remains of the once threatening mount doom, now diminished into sleeping dormancy by both the destruction of the ring and the sands of time. 

"So it begins." He said as he pulled a thick black book from his robes. He flipped the pages gently for unlike him, time had aged them for over a thousand years. The book was written in elvish script and language and having found the information he needed he proclaimed in a voice that shook the very ground he stood upon: "Coiva! Oranfumé ar quat i cemen as lya moinaya! Ortanë sí, ar palu-ormë acca i ambar-metta! Ortanë!" _Awake! Sleeping mountain and fill the earth with your once renowned fire! Arise now, and spread your wrath to the ends of the Earth! Arise! As each syllable sprang from his lips the mountain stirred. Until at last the mountain rekindled its inner fire and sent walls of liquid flame into the air. "Endórë ná nin!" _"Middle Earth is mine!"__

*        *        *        *        *

The wind played its whistling melodies with the forest as leaves fluttered and ferns danced to the tune. Hilei rode among the trees and while under cover of darkness dismounted and decided to make camp where she stood. "Fumé Lintálwi." _"Rest your eyes Lintálwi"_ She produced a mat that was tied to her horse's saddle and placed it upon the ground. Descending to her knees, she then laid upon it, attempting to rest before she searched the forest one last time for  Isilmë. The trees lulled Hilei to sleep despite her troubled mind, just beyond the borders of Bree. 

*        *        *        *        *

          Wind rushed in the door of the Prancing Pony, assaulting Violets eyes and chilling both she and Milo to the bone. "Who's there?" she cried. The figured said nothing and bowed his head as he stepped inside. His lofty walking stick (at least that's what the hobbits presumed it to be) stood by his side in his left hand. Violet stepped back and plastered herself to the check-in counter. Milo, mouth still full of food, lowered himself off his chair and approached the towering figure.

          "On't toech her, Ew ting!" as he said this little bits of his meal came shooting from his lips like a dinner themed firework show.

          "I knew hobbits could be rather silly, but to this extent I knew not." The stranger said with an aged voice from under his hood. "I do hope that you don't treat all your customers with this kind of courtesy."

           "You just startled us a bit, it being so late and all. We were just having a bite to eat before we go to bed." Said Violet from the front of the counter.

          Milo swallowed. "Who are you anyway?"

          "So you don't have a speech impediment." Joked the stranger while he pulled his hood away. "Well if you must know I am Nessaruvar, but do call me Saruvar it flows much better, and I'm in need of some temporary living quarters, that is of course if you have any vacancies." Nessaruvar had the face of someone in their late fifties and a grey beard that came down to his sternum. 

          Violet made her way around the desk to check if they had any rooms available. "We have one. It's on the next floor up though, is that ok?" 

          "Stairs and heights frighten me not. But I have seen lesser things startle others." Said Saruvar as he retrieved from his pocket a small sac of what the hobbits knew to be coins. Saruvar then asked her of the cost, Violet gave him a certain monetary amount, and he then passed her a few gold coins and signed a piece of parchment that sealed the deal.

          "Ok, here's the key for room twelve." Violet said as she passed him the notched metal twig. "Would you like anything to eat?" she asked politely, for she was rather tired at that very moment.

          "No I'm quite alright, thank you." He said as he made his way towards the stairs. Milo and Violet breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

          "Just another odd customer, I suppose." Milo said after the man had passed out of sight.

           "Never a dull moment." Violet agreed.

Later, the next morning.

          "Wake up, Milo." Violets voice seemed distant. Milo stirred in his bed and threw the sheets over his head. He could feel her hand prod him around the shoulders. "Its morning, you need to get up." An air of impatience now accompanied her words. "Get up!" as she shoved him again.

          "Does it have to be morning?" he questioned from underneath the sheets. Pulling the sheets down from over his head and revealing only his nose upwards. She gave him a strange look that alleged that she thought him insane; however the look subsided and she discounted his lunacy for a still sleeping mind.

          "We have to go restock some things. Grandle specified poultry, pork, cabbage, lettuce, and mushrooms. So you need to get ready." She said helping him out from under the covers. Milo sat upright in his cot, scratched behind his ears and thought of the delicious mushrooms of the night before.

          "Thanks for the meal last night." Milo said with certain amount of longing for he loved mushrooms nearly as much as he loved Violet. 

          "You're most certainly welcome." She replied then laughed thinking to herself.

          "What's so funny?" he asked.

          "You could sleep threw an invasion of orcs. I purposefully made as much noise as possible, trying to rouse you, and you didn't even stir." She said beginning to act out the things that she had done, stomping loudly and beating her pillows on her bed at the other side of the room. "I even yelled 'Breakfast Time' and you still did nothing."

          She now had Milo's full attention. "I didn't miss it… did I?" his face full of fret. 

          "No, at the time I was just trying to wake you." She confessed. "Besides, we don't have anything decent to eat." 

          Milo understood the severity of the situation as his stomach gave a tremendous lurch. "We'll, we must be off then."

Later that day.

          "I'd like three pounds of your pork cutlets and four chickens." Violet relayed to the shopkeeper. In the past the ordering of meats was Milo's job, which he took great joy in doing for he would often get carried away with the order, consequently they would bring back far to much for Grandle to afford. Milo had been called on this several times and each time Violet would defend her friend, verbally fencing with their employer so Milo could stay. He was off getting spoons for the kitchen, hopefully.

          The man returned with her order and having paid Violet made her way down the road to where Milo was supposed to meet her. _I do hope he got wooden-handled ones instead of those all metal things that always end up burning my hands._ The cages were half her size so Violet looked rather absurd as she toted the chicken cages at her sides, balancing the pork on her right. After much wobbling she came to the town square where she was to find Milo. _Where is he?_ She thought as she skimmed the crowd with her gaze. 

          Just at that very moment, Milo was rapping the deal he had just made with the silverware salesman. Three wooden handled spoons for just under their set budget. Milo thanked the gentlemen and began looking for Violet. _Where could she be?_ He swayed from side to side, peering around people so that he may see his beloved. Lo! Across the way standing next to elm was the hobbit he had been searching for. Violet's vibrant crimson locks fluttered with the passing wind as her light freckles shone like butterscotch constellations painted across her features in the illuminated menagerie that was Bree at Mid-day. She seemed taller to Milo and almost human at this distance and in the current lighting conditions. Milo strode over to Violet with the brightest of smiles upon his face.

          The crowd parted just as Milo came into Violets view. He wore a searching look upon his face and he turned this way and that, his eyes going in many a direction to seek what was just across the cobblestone square. Then his twin orbs fell upon Violet and she felt his encompassing stare that was fraught with earnest admiration. A smile crept to the borders of his cheeks and into the valley-like laugh lines built in his face. Milo walked over to where Violet stood.

          Milo's hands were wrapped around a rather oddly shaped package which he passed to Violet as soon as stood in her presence and his eyes filled with glee. She took the parcel and unfolded the edges, revealing the three spoons positioned one next to the other. "These are just the one's I wanted! Thanks Milo!" she exclaimed. 

          "I hoped you'd like them. That salesman was rather hard to find." Milo said as he examined the chicken cages and the wrapped pork cutlets. He took two of the cages and the pork and spoke these words unto her: "Shall we go back now?"

          Her lips tightened and went to one side in thought. After a moment of this she answered. "Just to drop off the chickens, the pork, and the spoons. Oh, did you get the mushrooms, lettuce, and cabbage?" Milo pointed to a large lump in his coat.

          "Don't worry they're wrapped."

          "Then I guess we're off then." She said as they made their way towards the Prancing Pony.

After they had delivered their grocery items to Grandle at the Prancing Pony; he gave them permission to spend what was left of the day as they pleased.

          Two hobbits could be seen roaming the forest surrounding Bree and as they made they're way to the river were they normally swam they sang a jovial song of the ways of the trees and the air of the forest in springtime. Milo stopped his chorus and asked the red headed lass accompanying him for a dance. Violet acquiesced to his request and they continued waltzing among the wood. The forest was filled with their laughter and he paused again. "Thank you for that wonderful dance." He said bursting with laughter, it had been such a fine day for Milo was with Violet in their favorite place in the world and all was right with the hobbits uneventful lives. Until Milo took a step back and tumbled down a hill he had not noticed. 

          Once he had finished his rolling he picked himself up, dusted the leaves from his jacket, and called for Violet to descend the miniature crag. He had fallen onto the path they normally took to the river. Violet gracefully slid down the small cliff, hanging onto trees as she went down. Her hands graced the bark of a nearby fur and she stopped suddenly in front of Milo. Frozen to the spot, she stared past him to a tree that stood just behind him. "What?" Milo asked her for he did not see what she saw. She pointed in answer to his question and Milo followed the direction of her index digit. 

          An arrow of the dirtiest nature lay embedded in the pine's trunk. Closer observation revealed that the arrow was covered in blood. The hobbits moved their eyes down the trunk until they came upon the obvious corpse of an orc.  Violet gasped and Milo stood rooted to the spot. Where one orc was there were bound to be many others.

          "We should go back and tell Grandle about this, he'll know what to do." Violet whispered. The echoing silence soon broke into horse whinnying and orc screams. They took one look at each other and they both ran up the path back towards Bree. Cutting through the woods so they could get out of the forest quickly they happened to run around a tree and ran into something that made them both fall off their feet. Their eyes looked up horrified for the something was actually a someone, and this tall figure bore a pair of jet black eyes that pierced the hobbits soles, terrifying them to the core.


	3. Battle on the Breeward Road

Two hobbits stared up into, what seemed to them as, a pair of black holes imbedded in an elven frame where eyes were supposed to be found. Matching black hair graced the beings shoulders and fell down her back. She stared at the two Halflings with a hurried curiosity as she had just taken the lives of a few orcs and finding this pair in the wood was a strange thing indeed. A flash of dark colors just behind the hobbits, Hilei raised her bow in response and Milo stumbled back in surprise and knocked Violet to the ground, where the pair laid in fear of the tall being. Hilei retrieved an arrow from her quiver that soon found its way to her bow, and with a swift movement of her arms it flew into the throat of the assailant. The dark creature fell to his leafy grave, just before the horrified hobbits feet.  
  
They looked again into those lightless orbs and found a questioning stare answering them. "What business do you have in this perilous coppice?" she inquired of the child sized beings.  
  
"I beg your pardon, but we should be the ones asking the questions around here." Milo said with a slight indignation.   
  
"Milo!" squeaked Violet from her position on the forest floor.  
  
"What?" he retorted. "She was the one who came into our nice, peaceful, thicket and decided to stir things up."   
  
"I know but…" she whispered. A worried face now stole her features.   
  
"I had nothing to do with the orcs if that is your implication." Hilei said felling rather foolish for she was arguing with a child. (Though she knew of Hobbits, she had never actually seen one.) A skeletal bird disturbed the air and Hilei moved her head just an inch to avoid the projectile as it embedded itself in an adjacent tree. She placed another arrow to her bowstring and let it sever the wind as it pierced yet another orc in its heart.  
  
"Come." She commanded of the hobbits. She turned and walked at a hasty pace through the forest. The two Halflings exchanged glances and quickly decided to follow. Hilei swerved around the trees rather gracefully leaving the Hobbits to trail in her wake. She whispered something in her native tongue into the air and it passed round the hobbits and the wood like a soft but determined breeze. Milo and Violet could both hear a rustling of the fallen leaves to their left, and out of the earth and bark colored air sprang forth a startling white mare that advanced towards Hilei. She took hold of the horse's reigns and looked back to the hobbits.  
  
"What are your names?" Hilei said in soft voice as if she were speaking to a pair of children.  
  
"I'm Milo Brandybuck." He said proudly, pointing his thumb to his chest. "And she's…" Milo motioned his hand in the other hobbit's direction.  
  
"…Violet Took." she finished. "And what might your name be, o lady of the wood?" Violet inquired of the stranger.  
  
"Hilei, adopted child of Víressë…she was a caretaker of the lake king of Mirkwood." she replied in lamentation. The hobbits did not quite comprehend her troubled expression, for beneath it laid the root of Hilei's troubled soul; near everyone that she knew and cared for from the old age had passed to the Grey Havens.   
  
Hilei mounted the mare and glanced down at the hobbits, seeming to argue with herself on whether or not to take them along.   
  
"Te nar er híni." "They are only children." She said to herself, and with that she extended her hand to the hobbits and they both sent a worried glance in response. "Worry not; for I will be sure to return you to your homes, this is no place for children your age."  
  
Milo gave her an annoyed stare for he was always a bit subconscious about his age. "I am not a child! I am just about to be in my tweens for your information, and not to mention the fact that hobbit children are far shorter than…well …near adult ones." He finished, crossing his arms. Hilei bore a slightly surprised look on her face as he said this.  
  
"I must apologize on my friend's behalf; he's always been this way when it came to his age." Violet said, trying to make them not seem nearly as ungrateful as Milo had just acted.  
  
"So, you are both Halflings?" she questioned.  
  
"Yep, we're definitely not children." snapped Milo, still clinging to his annoyance. Violet shook her head and continued.  
  
"If you'd still have us, we would be honored to ride among such noble company." said Violet from the horse's side. For it was obvious to her that she was an elf, now that she had had a chance to view her for more than the brevity of a moment. Hilei hoisted up the hobbitess up onto the mare, sitting Violet just behind herself.  
  
Hilei again extended her hand to the hobbit and said this: "Will you be accompanying your friend on our little journey?" His look of irritation wavered and he grabbed hold of the elven limb. Milo was then placed just behind Violet.  
  
"Child indeed." He said under his breath once he was situated.   
  
"Milo." Violet turned in her seat and shot him a look of pure shame. Milo immediately stopped as her look of embarrassment burned into his conscience, and he drew away with a worried look on his face. He never liked to upset or embarrass Violet, for he cared for her so.  
  
"Now, you will do well to either hold on to the back of the saddle or hold on to my waist. Which ever way keeps you steadiest." she said unto Violet. "And you would do well to hold on to her best you can, it may be a rugged ride though the wood." she instructed Milo. "Na tyelca, Lintálwi." "Be swift, Lintálwi." she whispered unto the mare's ear as they began their journey through the forest.  
  
Violet politely held onto the knob that was the rear of the saddle and Milo clung fast to her waist as they began to trot in the wooded area outside of Bree. Trees whirled past them as Lintálwi began her canter though the forest. They soon came to a path, and the horse broke into gallop, its hooves gracing the soft earth of the path, leaving their signature upon the ground in fours.   
  
After a time, they came to a small clearing, where the trees made a vain attempt to cover the canopy that led unto an ever blushing sky and all about them were the darkening tones of autumn. The earth seemed to come to a small peak in the center of the clearing, and soon Lintálwi came to a stop by an order from her elven masters reigns. The entire world round them seemed to hush as Hilei sifted the air for orc-like disturbances, and not a moment had passed when a cacophony of horse and orc screams entered the three being's ears. A worried glance came over both the hobbits faces as they advanced towards the epicenter of the disturbance.  
  
They had barely made it off the hill when a horse came cantering into the small field. It bore across its brown shoulders an elven figure, glad in green, with a bounty of blond hair streaming from her head in the wind. "Isilmë!" gasped Hilei at the crest of her utterance.  
  
The elf turned her head in response and said this: "Inyë nyérë telwanya ëala, anat inyë né telwa mas nossë a urqui mi i númenyanor." "I apologize for not coming sooner, but I was delayed by a party of orc's in the western lands." She said with rapidity and a flare of the nostrils, for her breathing was rightly labored for her current situation.  
  
"Maurëngwë netana Bree." "We must get to Bree." Hilei replied hurriedly. Milo and Violet were perplexed beyond the faintest tread of comprehension; the only thing they recognized within the elven exchange of speech was the aforementioned town.   
  
"Nauva en neri farëa nuhta te epë osto ná mantë ilya mas i raumo?" "Will there be men enough to stop them before the town is swallowed whole by the impending storm?" Isilmë asked from atop her steed.   
  
"Inyë ista lá, anat maurëngwë tyárin te." "I know not, but we must warn them." Hilei said with an apprehensive air.   
  
"Ana Bree san." "To Bree then." Isilmë said in conclusion, her hands quivering about the reigns.  
  
"Tápë! Níra collyë minë a i titta gwaith ana Bree?" "Wait! Could you bear one of these Halflings to Bree?" Hilei asked of the fellow elf. Isilmë nodded her head for she understood their need for haste. Hilei then turned round to face the hobbits and scooped up Violet as if she were a doll, and tossed her swiftly unto the awaiting elf; Violet's dress fluttering behind her like the flag of a sea faring vessel, waving to those it left ashore.  
  
Milo mouth hung low as Violet was received by the elf and was then placed behind her. "Violet!" he squealed. She answered with a worried glance; one which he only saw for a moment, for a dissonance could be heard coming from the woods behind them, the woods which Isilmë had just exited.   
  
A barrage of elongated splinters sliced the air about them, many burrowing safely into the earth, while others came dangerously close to embedding themselves in the horses' flanks. "Linna!" "Go!" Isilmë commanded. She gave her horses reigns a tremendous pull, so that it would continue away from the woods. Milo and Violet exchanged a fleeting look as they entered the wood, a look filled with worry and fear.  
  
Only a moment was spent traveling around the trees for soon the four found themselves on a path, but they knew not weather it would lead them from or to the town of Bree. The elves looked to each other and seemed to decide that right was the better of choices. Isilmë's horse went ahead of Hilei's and Milo could see Violets long locks seem to wave at him from the distance, as if giving one last farewell.  
  
Up the dirt rode a ways Milo could see a small company of dark figures in the distance, about twenty orcs heading towards them. After a few moments of the foreboding drumming of horses' hooves upon the earth, Isilmë and Violet came within shooting distance of the orcs. The orcs shot at them and Milo gave an audible gasp. None seemed to have hit them for they went on towards the company.  
  
Just before reaching the orcs Isilmë pulled from the sac upon her back two long blades, not quite swords, but by no means were they knives. With a fluttering motion of her arms she decapitated two orcs at the same time in passing. She rode on, slashing at various orcs as she passed until her way was cleared. They shot many an arrow in her direction but none hindered her, her horse, or her passenger. As she rode on Isilmë turned, brandished her bow, and shot down a few orcs before riding on into the distance. Milo was in awe during this whole exhibition of elven talent, but he had most certainly not seen anything as of yet.   
  
Hilei unhitched her bow as she approached the company, sending many an orc to their grave with well placed shots. They came within thirty feet of them as Hilei drew arrow after arrow into the assailing orcs. As she came to them Hilei placed the bow in a sort of holster tied to the horse's left side to ensure it would not move while she continued her fight. Milo saw none of this, only noticing that she had stopped shooting for a moment. Hilei unsheathed a blade similar to the ones Isilmë had used on the orcs. Milo did not see this either, for he was trying to center himself on the horse, noticing that he was leaning far to much to the right, so that he would not fall in case the horse tried to kick at the passing enemies. Milo looked in front again to see Hilei fall from her mare. He called out in fear and marveled at her bravery as she took down a passing orc just as she was falling with her newly drawn blade. Hilei had tightened her hold of the horse's side with her legs and brought her arm within the strap that held the saddle to the horse in that very instant. As she took down the aforementioned orc she ducked under her mare and came up on the other side, slashing at another orc as they passed. She gathered herself back atop her horse and sheathed her blade in time to undo her bow and continue shooting to clear her path. All of this was done with typical elven accuracy and finesse.   
  
Milo's mouth widened to a gasp of mixed pleasure and shock, which soon turned to an immense respect for the elven stranger. That was absolutely amazing! thought Milo to himself.  
  
They turned left and as they rounded the bend, they could see down the road at a considerable distance Isilmë's horse rearing up to prevent itself from being swallowed by the darkening sea. Over a hundred orcs pressed themselves around the horse and Isilmë could be seen holding her long knives in the air as warning to any who dared accost her. Milo also noted Violet for she was holding on for dear life, her arms wrapped round the elf's waist.  
  
Hilei commanded that her horse make haste as they closed the gap between them and the mass of orc flesh. She drew from her quiver the last of her arrows. Placing one between each of her right hand digits (including her thumb and index), strung each of them to the bowstring, and pulled her arm back while simultaneously leveling the bow to the horizon. She let fly the archer's quintet and they sung a silent tune straight into the hearts of four unfortunate orcs; each fell quietly to the forest floor upon bearing the most morbid of melodies.   
  
Hilei brandished her blade and raised her voice to meet the deafening drone of the hellish sea. Lintálwi and her riders broke the line, but their pace was slackened by the viscosity of the assailing tide. Hilei and her blade were a blur upon horseback, and all around the mare collected piles of orc carcasses. Isilmë wielded her twin blades with the accuracy of her people, similarly casting orc bodies to and fro in the fray. The horses soon met one another within the sea and they both reared up beside one another, so as to make the scene look as if taken from a family's coat of arms.   
  
Violet, however, did not agree with the artistic angle used by the horses erect bodies and she therefore fell off into the dark sea. Milo called her name and reached for his fallen love, but in his effort he, to, fell into the churning, darkening mass of orc flesh. "Violet!" he screamed once again as he was trampled by a particularly portly orc. Not wasting a moment's time for recuperation, Milo began crawling on all fours to free himself from the cage composed of orc limbs.  
  
Milo soon found a tunnel amongst the legs and crawled outward. Upon reaching the shore of this black tide he ran, then without a seconds delay tripped on a hidden branch and tumbled down a leaf covered hill. "Ohhh!" he cried as he rolled into a large oak. Milo got to his feet a looked round. He recognized the fact that he was at a considerable distance from the battle, and, acting accordingly, began his march up the wooded mound.   
  
He soon came to a fallen tree limb, which he put in his hand and gave a quick look over to determine whether or not it could be used in combat. The large stick came to a bulb at the end, one which came to a point at its side. Given this, he decided it fit for the operation and continued his climb. I hope I'm not to late! Milo worriedly thought to himself. 


End file.
